Over the past 11 weeks, I have spent an average of 4 hours per week completing the readings, reviewing the videos, taking notes, using technologies, blogging, and responding to about two posts. However, I spent many addition hours trying to figure out how to use the technology….which is my Achilles.

The majority of my blogs were two-three paragraphs in length and contained mostly superficial reflections with an occasional analysis, link, and/or item. I did not actively participate in Diigo or Facebook groups, but I did listen in on one Google Hangout Session and attended three on-line training workshops.

The following are my weekly blogs with additional commentary about my learning experience:

My first-ever blog!!! Although, I did not express it in my Week 1 Introduction, I was so thrilled that I figured out how to blog in WordPress.

As someone who has yet to teach an online course, I found the title, “Where the Hell to Start” very appropriate for the Week 2 assignment. My Beginner’s Questionnaire reflected that I am presentation-oriented. However, as I incorporate one group exercise in just about every f2f class that I teach, I began considering what technology was available to help me continue to continue group work in an online environment.

During Week 3, I learned a lot more about technologies, and especially the product Wimba.

The Week 4 learning resources offered a “plethora” of information that was a bit overwhelming for me. I will definitely be reviewing this material again.

As I have constructed a syllabus for a f2f course, and completed a doctoral course in an online environment, I had a very good understanding of the material covered in Week 5.

I was not at all surprised that I scored quite low on the technology quiz administered during Week 6. After taking the quiz, I proceeded to struggle with how to embed a YouTube video in WordPress. What a surprise!!!

During Week 7, I found the information about setting up an online course to be very practical. An important “take-away” point for me was that the number of students in the course is going to be a major determinant of the design.

Although the information offered during Week 8 on building a community was not new to me, I really enjoyed how it was presented in a real world setting. Again, the struggle for me will be how to capitalize on technology for building a sense of community in an online environment.

Role-playing and reflective journaling are teaching/learning strategies commonly used in nursing education curriculum. During Week 9, I learned about some of the technologies that I could use to promote role-play in the online environment. I also came to realize that for most learning experiences, blogging could replace reflective journaling.

I learned a lot about Intellectual Property, Fair Use and Open Educational Resources during Week 10. As I strongly voiced my opinion that ethics needed to part of the conversation on all three of these topics, I received “lots” of responses to my post.

For Week 11, I had hoped to produce a YouTube video, but realized that I did not have the best equipment to do so. I was able to figure out how to use SoundCloud for my presentation, but needed Lisa’s help to embed it. As I have not yet taught an online course, my presentation about how to convert a f2f course to an online course, was pretty basic. However, it did help me formulate my thoughts before proposing to the Dean that the Medical Terminology Course be offered as a hybrid course in the Spring.

Now that my doctoral dissertation has received committee approval, my plan is to go back and read this material again and better learn about the technologies associated with online teaching. I also plan to return in February for Part II of this great program. My sincere thanks to everyone involved with POT!!!

Here is my discussion via soundcloud in which I discuss course development and converting a face-to-face course to an online course.

This week, I learned a lot about Fair Use, Intellectual Property, and Open Educational Resources (OERs). The first important “take away” point for me is that, under the TEACH Act, there is inequity in fair use when comparing online and f2f instruction. A second point/recommendation is that making a website password protected is one of the best ways to protect intellectual property. Yet another important point is that I should explore open educational resources for use in my courses.

In reflecting on the readings and supplemental resources, I identified the explicit themes and topics of evolution, creativity, regulation, fairness, law, and academic integrity. However, what there was not much attention/discussion about were ethical considerations. For instance, Ko and Rossen provided very useful tips to encourage academic integrity, but did not provide ethical principles that could be used to teach students about academic integrity in the online environment. Another example is that we were told that the use of OERs in our courses can save students money. However, I cannot help but “ethically consider” that using OERs in my course also might lead to a loss of money for a book author(s). Bottom line, I am of the opinion that ethical principles should frame all of these discussions.

Next week, I will create my first YouTube video.

Two online activities that I would like to implement with nursing students are role-play and blogging. Role-play also will benefit students in the medical terminology course that I teach. The benefit of role-play is that it is constructivist in nature, provides practice for students before they have to interact with real patients, projects realism, and enhances self-awareness.

What I understand from reading the literature on role-play in the online environment is that it can be web-based with a simulated environment or it can be a patient care-related case study in which students provide care to a patient using technology via voice thread. I plan to further investigate these options.

Blogging is an activity that I will absolutely use with nursing students. Almost on a daily basis there is evidence in the literature of what worked well in the practice in caring for patients that needs to be shared with others. Accordingly, blogging is the perfect venue to do this. On the other hand, I am still reflecting on how blogging might contribute to the learning environment in the medical terminology course.